Justin Pfeifer never truly loved wrestling in the circle as much as stepping onto a football field, but it paid dividends on the line.

And likely down the line.

Back in February, at the state wrestling tournament in Billings, he was the favorite in the heavyweight division, having rolled through the season for the Cut Bank Wolves without a single loss to his name.

In search of a state title after finishing second as a junior and third as a sophomore, Pfeifer suffered a high-ankle sprain in the early seconds of his opening match.

He lost in the semifinals.

“That really got to me for a good solid month,” said Pfeifer, who still finished third.

While his outstanding wrestler career never produced gold, it developed skills he has used on the football field.

And it earned him a scholarship.

The 6-foot, 265-pound lineman is committed to Montana State-Northern and head coach Aaron Christensen. He will play on both sides of the ball at Saturday night’s Knights of Columbus Badlands Bowl in Miles City.

An All-State selection as a senior, Pfeifer is one of only a few athletes from northcentral Montana to be selected to play in this weekend’s game, joining the likes of Glasgow’s Benji Phillips and Fairfield’s Chandler Allen.

That’s not lost on the former Cut Bank star.

“It was really exciting when we found out,” Pfeifer said. “When I got it in the mail I was excited. My dad was more excited than I was, I guess. He’s kind of been there for everything this year. It was pretty cool.”

When practices began this week, coaches first lined Pfeifer up at guard for the annual contest against North Dakota, which kicks off at 6 on Saturday night.

“And then when we did one-on-one drills,” he said, “the defensive coaches and all of them were impressed and they moved me to nose guard too. I’m going to be playing both ways a little bit is what they told me, so that’s pretty exciting.”

His brute strength might be one of the reasons for the double duty.

Pfeifer recently benched 225 pounds.

And he did it 32 times.

His dad, Glen Pfeifer, was a two-time state champion power lifter when he attended Cut Bank back in the day.

“I actually broke his bench press record at school,” Justin said.

Glen was much smaller than his son is now.

At 165 pounds, Glen benched 335 pounds, Justin said. Then a much bigger version of Glen started walking the halls at Cut Bank.

Peter Hamilton, the head coach of the football team at Cut Bank, calls Pfeifer “a little Sherman tank.”

“I used to call him Billy Bob,” Hamilton said. “Now he’s kind of slendering down a little bit.”

As his body has transformed, Pfeifer's dedication to football hasn't wavered.

In fact, it's probably increased.

“I’ve been around him for a long time,” Hamilton said. “He’s just strong kid. He loves to workout, loves to lift weights. He loves football.”

Pfeifer’s stepdad, Scott Leeds, was an All-State receiver for the Havre Blue Ponies more than 20 years ago, then became an All-American pass catcher at Carroll College under the tutelage of head coach Bob Petrino and a wide receivers coach at Montana State-Northern for more than a decade.

“He’s kind of been the one to motivate me to work on my feet,” Pfeifer said. “He was probably the reason I really got into it. Because I lived (in Havre) and then I moved back to Cut Bank with my dad, and that’s kind of when I started working out pretty hard. He’s a pretty good motivator.”

Pfeifer believes a good wrestler makes a good football player, not the other way around. Wrestling has been integral for him in developing the necessary and nimble feet to be a dependable lineman on the field.

“I think wrestling is something that’s helped him a lot with his foot work,” Hamilton said. “He mainly did it to be a football player. I didn’t mind it because it made him into a pretty good football player. He was a great kid to have, an asset. And not only that, he was a great wrestler too. He placed three years at state. That’s pretty tough to do, especially at heavyweight.”

Football has always been his favorite sport, and he didn’t pick up wrestling until fifth grade, he said, when his cousins, the Berkram brothers, Kylan and Jace, bothered and badgered him enough that he showed up for a practice one day.

Pfeifer learned a lot from both but formed an especially lasting bond with Jace.

“We would always be at the gym together,” he said. “I kind of missed him this year. It was different. We were always with each other.”

Last weekend, Pfeifer played nose guard and recovered a fumble on the North squad at the Class B All-Star Game in Billings.

They won, 59-20.

“That was a blast, but it’s nothing like this one,” Pfeifer said.

To be sure, the talent and competition hits another gear this weekend.

“It’s amazing,” Pfeifer said. “You’re playing with the Billings Senior kid, Nate Dick, he’s the best kid I’ve ever played with, I think. The best quarterback. It’s crazy.”

Montana leads the all-time series 17-6, having won five out of the last six tilts, and Pfeifer said there's a good possibility it's six out of seven by late Saturday night.

“They are going to be big,” he said of North Dakota. “But we have way too much speed and athletes.”

Pfeifer and two of his Cut Bank teammates – Wylie Novak and Peter Hamilton Jr. – are part of Northern’s incoming class.

Pfeifer blocked for Hamilton Jr., a running back, and Novak, a quarterback, in 2016. He said he doesn’t mind living in the oftentimes obscurity of the line of scrimmage.

“I don’t mind at all,” said Pfeifer, who will play defensive tackle for the Lights. “Especially playing nose guard, you’re always getting double teamed. I’ve been getting double and triple teamed all through high school. You don’t really make many plays, but your teammates do.”

It’s a stark contrast to the center stage he took on the mat.

“Through high school, I kind of got the spotlight in wrestling a lot,” he said. “It was one of those things where it didn’t bother me in football ever.”

And while it is always tough to crack the lineup as a freshman, it wouldn’t bother Pfeifer if he did so at Northern.

He is confident that he can, a mindset that's carried him to tremendous success in both wrestling and football.

“I have high goals,” Pfeifer said. “I hope to play my freshman year. That’s a big-time goal of mine. I think I can do pretty good things there.”